Wooden boxes filled with food have been popping up outside of homes and churches for years.
Researchers with the University of Washington have come up with a way to track these small food pantries in the greater Seattle area.
Giacomo Dalla Chiara, a senior research scientist with UW's Urban Freight Lab, is part of the team that wanted to learn how often these free food pantries are used and refilled. As part of a trial program, some of these homemade boxes with food inside have been fitted with electronic weights and door sensors. The door sensors send an alert any time the pantry is opened to track its use.
"So any time you donate an item, there is a weight change inside the pantry," he said. "That's why we started by installing weight sensors."
The information is available on an app called PantryMap.
The tool shows the locations of dozens of little free pantries across the area. It also shows which ones may be full and which are running low. People donating food can also use the app to log items.
All this can assist donors in deciding which pantry locations to contribute to.
Dalla Chiara said the data collected by the sensors is helping to answer some key questions about addressing food insecurity.
"Can we help people in donating more, or donating better food as well as donating the right food that people needs?" he said.
The team will collect data from the project through October.
